Is self-control like a muscle – the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets?

Until recently, the strength of my self-control has been a source of great pride for me. Over the past few months however, I've found that self-control declining…and the lack of posts on this blog is a prime example of that.

Thinking about this problem I came up with the hypothesis that perhaps self-control is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets….the less you use it, the more it atrophies.

A quick Google search found this article on strengthening self-control, which supports the notion. 

It sounds like the solution to my problem therefore, is to identify opportunities to exercise my self-control and act on it. This means finding and undertaking activities that aren’t necessarily immediately gratifying, but are important and/or will benefit me in the long-run.

I really want to make strengthening my self-control a habit and as such, my goal (which I will assess each night) is to spend 21 consecutive days doing at least one activity that will strengthen my self-control (even if it’s as small as getting up without hitting snooze on the alarm). 

The risks in searching for a job you will love

Confucius is attributed with saying “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life”.

While I think the concept behind this sentence is fantastic, I feel that there is a risk that it will be taken too broadly by those entering the workforce. On hearing this quote and the many other motivational statements that get thrown around like “follow your dreams” and “find your passion” new employees may make the following mistakes:

Mistake Number 1: Unrealistically believing that those who are passionate about their jobs love every aspect of them…all the time.

While it may theoretically be possible for someone to love every aspect of their job, I’ve never met anyone who does. Even the most engaged business people dislike elements of their role and experience periods when they don’t like their job at all. These employees tolerate these moments however, because they know that the good aspects of their jobs, more than compensate for the bad.

Mistake Number 2: Prematurely leaving a role when initially given uninteresting tasks.

For those readers who are about to start work with a new employer, please bear the following in mind: your new boss, while going to a lot of effort to ensure that you have the right credentials, the right experience and the right personality to fit in with the team, won’t know for sure that s/he has made the right decision and can trust you, until you start producing output.

Your new boss will quite likely give you work that needs doing, but that won’t really matter if it gets done slowly or poorly. This work is quite likely going to be boring. Please do these mundane tasks efficiently and to a very high standard – in short, exceed your manager’s expectations. In doing so, you will build the trust of your employer, who in all likelihood will give you progressively more challenging and interesting tasks to undertake. As you continue to deliver excellent results (building a great personal brand) you will be given more freedom to choose the work that you want to do.

What I’m recommending in summary therefore, is this: don’t continually change roles, searching for that utopian job that you will love right from the beginning, every minute of every day. Instead, find a job that you believe you will enjoy (most of the time and once you’ve built the trust of your boss), that challenges you, teaches you useful skills for the future, fills a need in society and has a high probability that you will succeed in. Maybe then you’ll love your job, even if elements of it feel like work.

New template for setting and tracking goals

I have created a free new template for setting and tracking five-year and annual goals, which you'll find on my new Tools & Templates Page.

Any suggestions on how to improve it are welcome.

Cheers,
John

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it's good for your career

We have all heard the phrase "curiosity killed the cat", but in my experience, intellectual curiosity is great for your career... (and in case you're interested, Warren Buffett agrees with me).

The message from this blog post is simply that approaching business and perhaps life, with a desire to learn, will be good for your career. I personally, am aiming for "lifelong learning" so I encourage you to read on for supporting arguments and tips on how to achieve just that.

Costs
The costs associated with pursuing learning will vary with the approach you take. One likely cost however, is time:
- time away from your job and the activities that contribute towards this year's bonus, or
- personal time that could be spent with family, friends etc.

If you decide to undertake formal education there will also likely be a financial cost.

In considering the above, it might be worth noting that in spending time learning about your coworkers, you may discover an area of the business that can help you to achieve your business goals faster. 

Regarding use of personal time... if you love learning it may not actually be a "time cost" to learn something new.

Benefits
The benefits of having and displaying curiosity are numerious. Here are just a few:
- improved relationships with coworkers
If you seek to understand what your coworkers do day-to-day, you will have a better understanding of the challenges that they face and will likely develop rapport with them.
- stimulated creativity 
Learning new material and having discussions with others can spark creativity. For further tips on Creativity, refer to my blog post on the topic
- ability to better assess and learn from feedback without being defensive
Listening to feedback with the goal of learning, natually reduces defensiveness
- knowledge you can build on as you progress in your career

What to be curious about:
If you've come to the conclusion that the benefits outweigh the costs, you may be wondering "What should I be curious about?" and the short answer is everything.
If that's too general, perhaps you might want treat it like a series of circles (with your day-job at the center). The following is purely a thought-provoker (not a comprehensive list):
> Learn everything you can about your role,
> Learn about the roles of your immediate coworkers.
> Learn about the company.
> Learn about the industry.
> Learn about the function.
> Learn about history of your company.
> Learn about the history of your industry.
> Learn about the history of your function.
> Learn about the future of your industry or where its likely to head.
> Learn about the future of your function or where its likely to head.

How and where to begin:
Start with an open mind and a desire to learn, then, if it fits with your personality, set yourself a goal.
After that, begin to:
Talk - with people, about the topics you're interested in learning about or are already learning about. It reinforces what you've learned and you'll gain another perspective.
Read - books, articles, blog posts, magazines etc.
Listen to - news reports, interviews, stories you've heard, advice that's given etc.
Watch/observe - videos, presentations, how other people act etc. and
Attend - industry events, classes, lectures, etc.

That's it for now; until next time... good luck and have fun!

Build a broad skill base - pursue learning, never money

Here is a piece of advice that I received early in my career:
 "Build a broad base of skills and experience that you can rely on as you progress in your career. While it may be possible (easy?) to secure a more senior position...greater responsibility and expectations come with increased salary. If you one day find yourself in a role where you cannot meet expectations, it is near impossible to move...in any direction. Build that broad base, move up (only) when you are ready and the money will come."

I have considered this advice numerous times throughout my career. For example, when considering which role to pursue next, I try to identify a role at least one position further along my preferred career path. I then find a real role description for that role and see what skills and experience are required. That then gives me the criteria for the role that I am pursinging right now: Which of all the roles out there, am I confident that I can succeed in and will give me the most and best, skills and experience?

Note, I have a minimum salary that I would accept, but it is the minimum amount that my family can comfortably live on. I have almost never excluded a role on the basis of money. Please note, while I have typically worked in high paying industries, I have managed my/our budget very carefully,  which has increased my financial freedom. Perhaps, if you're interested, this could be a topic for a future blog post?

One final note on this topic, I would rather "hit it out of the park" in a more junior role, exceeding expectations, than just barely meet expectations in a more senior role. I love the career freedom this approach provides!

Change management tip - "Start, then strengthen"

You will massively improve your chances of successfully making changes in your workplace if you implement a simple and essential change first, then look to incorporate the more challenging elements later. In essence, "Start, then strengthen".

The temptation when assessing the scope of proposed changes is to correct all the known issues (major and minor) in the first iteration. Your thinking may be "I'm going to have spend a lot of time and energy convincing stakeholders to buy into these changes, it makes sense to try and fix everything as part of this project".

Before going down that path however, I advise you to consider the following:
1) Larger more complex projects/changes have more elements for detractors to criticise
2) "Minor" changes may cost more and extend the duration of your project more than you first expect
3) The business world changes very rapidly; the changes resulting from longer projects may no longer be relevant once they have actually been implemented, or worse, you could lose funding partway through your project and be unable to fully implement any of your desired changes.

My recommendation therefore is to implement changes in a series of phases/projects. Start with the most crucial items and manage the scope very carefully. Set up the project in such a way that you can build on it (future-proofing), but do not allow the scope to expand without first getting agreement from all stakeholders (i.e. scope creep). If possible, don't expand the scope at all...the goal is to keep things simple and fully implement the most crucial changes first.

My final piece of advice on this topic is to track the benefits of the implemented changes and to celebrate the results. You are then ready to reassess the situation and tackle the new essential changes (building on the project you've already implemented).

As always,  I welcome your questions, comments and feedback.

Exceed your boss' expectations, then ask for what you want

This may seem obvious, but the most important person to impress at work is your line manager (your boss). S/he is the one who has the biggest influence on what work you do, what (if any) bonus you're entitled to, whether you're deserving of a pay rise, what training the organisation will finance for you and so on. Your line manager is also the gate-keeper to more senior members of the organisation and likely a person with numerous contacts within the organisation and/or across the industry.

The only way to impress your boss is to clearly understand what s/he expects from you, then deliver work that exceeds those expectations. This applies to more than just the output itself ( e.g. exceeding your sales target), but also the way you deliver the output (e.g. the relationships you build with your coworkers, the processes you put in place etc.).

Continually exceeding expectations will result in three things:
1) you will build a fantastic reputation (personal brand),
2) you will be given the opportunity to work on those things that you want to work on and
3) you will be given chances for rapid promotion.

Please be aware, the only way that you will be given work that you want to work on, is if you ask for it. A great line manager may know what you want to do, but don't expect them to - they're likely to be very busy, with many demands on their time and thoughts. My recommendation is to exceed your boss' expectations, then ask (politely) for what you want.

A final word of caution...each time you exceed your line manager's expectations, those expectations will rise. How to handle this challenge may well be the topic of a future blog post...please let me know if that would interest you.